Improvement is the first goal for the Eagles as they replace Poore and Edwards

EDINA - The Eagles will take to the field this season with some new faces on their roster.

Gone are the recognizable standouts like Royce Poore and Donovan Edwards that led their team last season. This season they will look to new names to lead their team.

“Donovan (Edwards) and Royce (Poore) were two excellent athletes and great leaders. They did a real good job of getting our offense and defense prepared each week,” Knox County head coach Alex VanDelft said. “We’ll rely on the quarterback, receiver and running back to help replace him and focus on doing the small things right. Last year Donovan was able to score on a 80-yard touchdown play at any point and same with Royce. Both had big-play potential.”

Without the big-play potential that they had with those two athletes, Knox County figures to go with a slower, more methodical style of offense.

“This year we’ll be more methodical and maybe a little bit slower pace and might not score as much,” VanDelft said.

But what they will lack in big plays, they will try to make up for with focusing on the small things such as taking care of the ball and being in the right position on offense. The Eagles’ offense averaged more than 25 points a game last season and topped 30 points four times.

This year the coaching staff is not as focused on the wins and losses but rather focused on getting better every week.

“This season is based upon improvement, which is fine, we want to be one of the better teams in the area by Week 10. Week 1 doesn’t matter as much to us,” VanDelft said.

They do return two seniors on the offensive line and a senior running back in Brodie Moubry and will hope that will ease the transition for the new quarterback who might be an incoming freshman.

“We return two senior offensive linemen and Brodie Moubry who started four years,” VanDelft said.

The seniors at Knox are also excited and ready for the season to start. Some who haven’t played a lot of minutes on the varsity side are ready for their chance to shine.

“I’m looking forward to playing and not sitting on the bench like I did the last four years,” Sam Minear said.

Other seniors are looking forward to giving it one last go for the Eagles and looking to make an impact for Knox County as well as for the younger classes.

“It’s just something special, you come out and have fun and do what we got to do to do our best,” Riley Poston said.